This is what Cross deserved for taking in a stray puppy. All the love and rewards that came with the little bundle of fur were great, but tagging along with something that had much, much more energy than you did was tiring to say the least. Bear was a good dog - he was far more intelligent than Cross would have guessed, except that he hadn't learned to stop barking at certain mutants' powers when they were in use and had a tendency to hassle the shape shifters of the Institute more often than not, but that sort of knowledge would come in time. Cross, as of right now, would simply be happy with the puppy learning what "heel" meant or at least deciding that it was not a good idea to jerk the leash loose from Cross' hand and go barreling into the library.

Jogging a little bit, Cross had made it to the door just in time to see a black tipped tail go shuffling behind a bookshelf, leash in tow. He was grateful that he'd decided to be a little informal today, as much as it pained Cross, and wear things that were appropriate for dealing with hyperactive mutts, also known as jeans and a t-shirt with actual tennis shoes. Though Cross was much more comfortable in a suit than anything else, he admitted that his current attire was much more suitable and disallowed Bear from using his good ties as chew toys and impromptu nooses. Speaking of the puppy, Cross rounded the corner of the bookshelf to see Bear sniffing at the bottom of an armchair in a very "I'm going to pee" kind of manner.

"Bear, NO." He said loudly and quickly, crossing the threshold to pick up the puppy and interrupt the sequence of events. Cross didn't think the librarian would forgive him for allowing a dog to urinate all over the furniture, and it wasn't something Cross particularly found amusing either. The puppy wriggled in his grip, turning to lick Cross' face since it was there and in reach, and the man leaned his head to one side to keep Bear from getting to any of his more personal facial features. "What are you doing, dog?" Cross asked aloud, making sure to keep his mouth away from the excited puppy. "Did you smell something interesting in here? Or are you always this excited?" The puppy continued wriggling, and Cross put him down again with a small sigh, keeping a hold on the leash and watching Bear carefully. "Always this excited. Of course."

Eli was at home in the library, he liked his books. It wasn’t that he didn’t like people, he loved people, he just liked books because they didn’t talk back or say rude things or make a mess. Still, he had tutored three students in the morning and was finally able to get some quiet time. He made his way behind the desk and once he had gotten everything in order, he began shelving books and checking books back in before he thought he saw a dog in his library. It took him a moment to realize that yes there was in fact a small dog sniffing around his bookshelves. He looked around a little confused as to how a dog even got in before squatting down a little.

“Uh, hi puppy.” He said before he heard another voice and then someone scooped the dog up. He knew them, he’d seen them around. He just smiled once the dog was securely in the other man’s grip, he wanted to say that this was not the best place for a puppy, but clearly the other man already knew that. Once the dog was back on the ground, Eli watched it with a slightly wary eye, it was doing the doggy pee thing…and he might have a conniption if that dog peed on his books or the furniture.

“He’s very cute, and very excited to be in the library apparently.“ Eli commented with a smile, hoping that the dog wasn’t going to decide to mark his territory all over the library. Eli wasn’t aware they were allowed to have pets here, but then again he was sure some of the people in the institute considered him to be like a pet, which was kind of funny in a twisted sort of way.

Bear was ecstatic at the idea of someone new. As soon as an unfamiliar voice sounded out among the stacks of books, the dog's ears perked up and he jerked his head over towards the noise. Tail wagging was another obvious reaction, and as soon as Cross deemed that the dog could be allowed on the floor, he was towed (or at least the attempt was made by the puppy) over to Eli Rozear, the resident librarian.

"His name is Bear," Cross said, watching the puppy once again. He didn't want Bear to suddenly decide to pee on things - this was a constant threat, along with the threat of losing all his good shoes to the pointy teeth of the dog. Remembering his manners, Cross extended a hand to the librarian. "I'm Cross. I don't think we've officially met, but I have heard of you." Read his file was more like it. Cross liked to know who was in the Institute, and even if he hadn't met the mutant, he generally knew what they looked like and had a vague idea of their powers.

He watched Bear sniff around the other mutant's feet, before nipping at the shoes with a "I want to eat these" kind of air. "Be careful," Cross warned, indicating Bear while he pulled back a bit on the leash. "He likes shoes."

“Well hello Bear, you’re an adventurous fellow!” Eli said tentatively reaching out to scratch the little dog’s ears. When the owner of the little pup held out a hand and introduced himself as Cross, and then went onto say that he hadn’t actually met him, but knew who he was, Eli smiled a little awkwardly, quickly getting to his feet and shaking the proffered hand. He found it slightly concerning that he had already heard of him, and Eli wondered if that was a bad thing or not.

“Oh uh, has my reputation once again proceed me?” He asked a little uneasily, attempting and failing at injecting a joking tone in his voice. “It’s nice to meet you Cross, as you apparently already know, I’m Eli, or you know, Sandman, whichever.” He knew some people preferred to be called by their codenames, so he figured he would give the other man the option. He watched the little dog sniff around his shoes looking back at Cross when he said he liked shoes.

“Most puppies do, but it’s ok, these are like ancient anyway.” He said with a laugh. “When I was younger we had a dog who ate all my sisters shoes and she would get so mad…I just didn’t understand why she kept insisting on leaving them on the floor if she knew what was going to happen.” He paused for a second, before lowering his voice conspiratorially. “I think she just wanted new shoes, but that can stay between us.”

With a new and foreign hand scratching the wonderful places behind Bear's ear, the dog was extremely happy by any means, and he showed this sentiment by licking every single part of Eli's hand he could manage to reach. As Eli moved away, Bear gave an excited yap, rearing up onto two legs to attempt to reach the librarian's hand once again. He wanted more attention, and he planned to make this point very clear.

Cross simply watched the dog with amusement, trading the attention between the dog and Eli as needed. The unease in Eli's voice wasn't left unnoticed, and Cross made a point to try to make the other man more comfortable. "I apologize. I do a substantial amount of the administrative work here, and I've run across your name more than once. I really should have met you by now, but I don't usually visit the library and until recently I was off campus during the weekdays." At the mention of codenames, Cross added a bit of his information to his explanation to help ease they discomfort. "My codename is Saint, if it helps."

Cross smiled amiably at Eli at the story about his shoes and family, turning his attention back to Bear when the puppy began trying to jump up on Eli once again. WIth a clicking noise, Bear's own attention was suitably intrigued, and the puppy bounded back to his owner with his ears perked up. "I never had a dog when I was young, so it never had a chance to chew up any of my siblings shoes, unfortunately." Cross leaned down to scratch behind Bear's ears, earning a lick or two of his own as he did. "I'm learning as I go, here."

“Oh, well I feel kind of stupid now.” Eli said with an awkward smile. He was just so use to people knowing about him because of something bad. He watched the little puppy with vague amusement. Puppies and babies were always so cute. He was just waiting for one of his siblings to start having kids. He couldn’t wait to spoil a future niece or nephew, and he did love little kids. He nodded when Cross gave his codename.

“Ah, well I’m often found in the library, or somewhere in the mansion in the middle of the night.” Which was true, he was most likely to be found in the library, but at 2 am he did like to raid the kitchen. It was quiet and he could make himself whatever he wanted so long as he cleaned up afterwards. Never sleeping could sometimes be a terrible curse. He smiled again when Cross said he never had a dog when he was young so he was learning as he went.

“Even if you had dog, it would still probably be a learning experience. From what I hear every dog is different.” Eli left out the part where shortly after he was sent to the institute that the dog had been given to the pound. Luckily Jared had caught wind of that quickly adopted the dog out. He shook his head trying to rid himself of the memory before looking down at the little dog.

“I wasn’t actually aware we were allowed to have pets here.” He had always kind of wanted a cat, he wondered if he asked if he could possibly get one.

Cross narrowed his eyes in a look of mild concern, trying to figure out for what reason Eli would feel stupid. Cross was the stalker here, and if anyone should feel bad about being misleading, it was he. There was nothing to be blamed on Eli for not knowing who Cross was, after all the librarian did the logical thing and spent most of his time in the library and Cross spent most of his time at work, in and out of the Institute.

And with Eli's explanation of where he was usually found, Cross' excuses concerning why he had never met a member of the X-Men team (really, though, he should have better manners than this) were only strengthened. He did have a twinge of guilt in the back of his mind, telling him that he should have sought out Sandman at least once, but he guessed that it was something he just kept putting off, distracted by the other aspects of life.

The change of topic back to the dog Bear was welcomed, and Cross continued the conversation with ease. "This dog certainly is different." Cross said, nearly muttering at the puppy in a almost out of character manner. Bear had returned to sniffing bookcases, wholly uninterested in the conversation the two humans were having and much more intent on picking out the almost-feral smells of some of the mutants at the Institute. There were there, underlying all of the newer scents but there were there. God help those present when Bear discovered/met Hank McCoy or Lupine or Wolfsbane.

The question of whether pets were allowed had a tentative answer in response. "Well, I'm responsible for all the nonsense this dog gets up to, and I keep him in my own apartment or with me when I'm home." Unless some of the kids wanted to puppy-sit, of course. That was something Cross didn't object to. Kids were kids, and the time spent without worrying about what Bear was trying to destroy at the moment was certainly appreciated. "I do regret saying that I haven't paid attention to the rules for the students as much as I should have, but I didn't have much choice with Bear. Either I kept him, or sent him to the pound. Since we have plenty of space here, I didn't see a problem."

And, you know Cross was plenty mature enough to deal with the dog.

Eli looked back at the little dog to avoid the slight concern on the other man’s face. Why oh why did he have to make such an ass out of himself, every single time he met a new person? It wasn’t Saint’s fault he was a weirdo who spent all day in the library and all night in the halls stalking the area like a chatty ghost. He glanced up when Cross said the little dog certainly was different. He grinned and shook his head with a chuckle, Bear was just a puppy, of course he was going to be an adventure and a half.

“When they’re little like that they are full of curiosity. When he gets older, he’ll probably just not care.” He said with a smile. He watched the little dog move around. So long as he didn’t decide to mark his territory on his books, it would all be good. He might actually have a conniption if the dog peed on his books. Not that he could help it, but some of those books were old and he wasn’t sure how easily they could be replaced. He nodded when Cross explained about the dog.

“Oh well, that sounds fine then. I just wasn’t sure if we could have them here, because I know at least a few of the kids would love to have a puppy…of course the adults would be taking care of them, but you know.” The only kids he thought might be good with a dog would be those Guthrie kids; they had a farm or something like that.

“Oh yes, definitely keep the poor little guy out of the pound! My father tried put our dog in the pound once I was sent here and if it weren’t for my older brother finding out and bailing him out, he might have been put down.” A slight hint of bitterness was evident in Eli’s face at the mention of his father, no matter how much he tried to keep the anger out of his tone, he couldn’t keep it all out, the man had caused him too much heartache to completely let go of.

“Well, so long as he’s a good boy, I don’t think anyone would care. You’re a good boy right bear?” Eli said, hoping his words would immediately be belayed.

There was a brief moment in which Cross supposed that he should have consulted one of the other X-Men if keeping the puppy was going to be a bad example for the student (and possibly set the Institute on a school-wide quest to find stray pets), but he had assumed that the decision wasn't going to affect many people but himself. Cross would obviously be the caretaker, dealing with Bear on a day-to-day basis and concerning himself with the majority of the nonsense a puppy could get up to. The other X-Men were the next affected, specifically Forge who shared a wall of his apartment with Cross. He could handle being woken up at odd hours by barking, but Cross was sure that Forge might not appreciate such things.

Last, but not least, were the students. Bear wasn't truly going to affect them in the normal way, but they would have to be stupid to not notice a puppy running around. A distraction? Yes. A good thing? Perhaps. Cross figured that was long as the students didn't start coming up to the X-Men and asking if they could please, please have a dog/cat/gerbil/snake/bird, things would be fine.

Bear wasn't going to be too much of a nuisance to anyone, as long as he followed Cross and Eli's current wishes to avoid marking his territory in the library. In that light, Cross waited until Eli was done petting the puppy and until Bear had decidedly moved on to sniffing unknown things lurking in the carpet before calling the dog. Bear trotted over happily, and Cross looked up at Eli. "Yes, this will be interesting." He said, tugging at the dog's leash and turning for the door. "It's been nice chatting with you." Cross nodded to the other mutant politely, then left the library.

It was probably time to let Bear do what he'd been wanting to do for the last twenty minutes or so.

Eli watched the little dog move around the library with a wary, but not untrusting eye. He was a puppy; they were prone to do things like tinkle on things. He was fairly certain that the other man wasn’t going to let the dog do that in his library, but perhaps it would be good to let the poor little guy go potty soon. He glanced up when Cross called to the dog and it trotted over to him; tail wagging happily as he went. He was sure that the dog would be fine, so long as the students didn’t decide that now would be a good time to beg for a pet of their own.

He could only imagine if the institute was allowed to become overrun with pets of all kinds, birds and cats and dogs and snakes, even rodents. He doubted it would become an issue, but it probably wouldn’t stop the kids from asking and pulling the whole, but so and so has one card. Hopefully the dog would be a well behaved dog and he wouldn’t have to worry about random pee-pee incidents.

He glanced back up when Cross said it was nice talking to him, and Eli nodded politely. “It was nice talking to you as well.” He said as the other man left with the little dog. Eli went back to stocking his books, cringing as he heard one of the students ask if they had just seen a dog in the library, and so it begins.